They have never been to school. They’ve never said anything about wanting to read. But when they have to read something, they pretend they forgot their glasses or smth like that. They’re insecure about it. I feel sad for them. That said, they’re pretty stubborn. What can I possibly do to convince them to try learning?
As a formerly insecure person, just offer to teach them if they want, and then never mention it again. Once they’re ready to get over their insecurity, they will contact you, or not.
This right here. Constantly nagging them about something they are ashamed of will only make them more resistant to help.
Agreed, also recommend doing this completely in private so they don’t feel like there may be other people listening to your offer.
Write them a convincing argument in a letter as to why it is important to learn how to read.
💀
😚
I grew up very poor. In my street lived an older lady and a few doors down lived her daughter and son-in-law. The older lady was illiterate and when her first grandson was about to learn how to read, her daughter asked her to help teach him by keeping them company. So the daughter taught her toddler and her mother the bascic alphabet. That inspired the old lady to seek help and my mother arranged for a high school student to come tutor the lady three days a week. The old lady taught the next two grandkids how to read using the pamphlets she learned to read herself.
Inspiring
Do you know why they don’t want to learn to read?
My guess would be a mix of embarrassment and a feeling like it’s too hard.
Yeah that’s it. And my family being too immature doesn’t help. They would laugh watching them struggle to learn.
Oof, that’s harsh.
Cruel
My family are the kings and queens of refusing to do things that will make thier lives better. I have learned through bitter experience that there is no helping anyone who does not want to help themselves.
Without knowing your family member there really isn’t much useful that anyone can tell you.
I recommend that you find a way to maintain whatever level of relationship you want with that person that insulates you from their “issues”.
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what does that get you?
Isn’t it obvious? People help each other all the time.
You probably didn’t mean it like that, but why did you want to dig deeper into something so obvious tho?
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Alr lol chill
They’re insecure about it. I feel sad for them.
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Believe it or not, some people are truly selfless sometimes.
Nahh, it’s nothing that noble lol
I have tons of time now, and wouldn’t lose anything by making her life better
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Their motivation can be as simple as “I want to”.
I’m not really sure what you’re hoping to achieve with this line of questioning?
That’s intent, not motivation. People usually have a reason for wanting to do something.
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I’m not OP, I just read the post.
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It helps another human being in a significant way isn’t that good enough
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Why are you questioning the motivation behind someone trying to do a selfless act? An act that could even be described as altruistic. How does knowing OP’s motivation helps you and OP convince their relative?
I’m just asking questions so I can help you help OP.
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because that informs strategies for helping
I asked how so
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Even with the “worst” motivation, why couldn’t OP apply the “best” strategy towards helping?
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Just use your interpretation of best when you said “better” advice in your original comment. Seems like the metric towards “best” is “more likely to actually help”.
Also, you can give a few example of motivations that would end up with the strategies most likely to actually work. Maybe OP didn’t think of these motivations themselves, but they would adopt when you state them out loud for us.
But coming back to my main point, I still don’t see how the motivation could dictate strategies most likely to help.
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Are they dyslexic or have other obstacles you may not know about?
If they do, we don’t know. Because they have, as far as I know, never tried to learn. They’ve never been to school. They say it would be ridiculous at their age to learn school stuff.
What I’m getting at is there may be LDs they are embarrassed to share.
Oh, you right. They’re the type of person to hide something like that.
Text to speech scanners are already available.
Get them one that lets them ‘read’
mho
We speak a language that’s not much spoken and therefore we don’t have that facility.
Check the local libraries and societies for the blind.
Sometimes things are available but aren’t widely known.
Is there a significant age gap?
What? Between me and them? Yes.
Is there an app that they could use privately?
Doesn’t know how to use a smartphone :(
